WIST Quotations

Taleb, Nassim Nicholas -- The Black Swan, Introduction (2007)

Dave — Mon, 31 Mar 2025 17:23:33 +0000

I don’t particularly care about the usual. If you want to get an idea of a friend’s temperament, ethics, and personal elegance, you need to look at him under the tests of severe circumstances, not under the regular rosy glow of daily life. Can you assess the danger a criminal poses by examining only what he does on an ordinary day? Can we understand health without considering wild diseases and epidemics? Indeed the normal is often irrelevant.

Nassim Nicholas Taleb (b. 1960) Lebanese-American essayist, statistician, risk analyst, aphorist
The Black Swan, Introduction (2007)

La Bruyere, Jean de -- The Characters [Les Caractères], ch. 2 “Of Personal Merit [Du Mérite Personnel],” § 20 (2.20) (1688) [Browne ed. (1752)]

Dave — Tue, 05 Dec 2023 18:45:01 +0000

If it is usual to be strongly impressed with things rare and extraordinary, how comes it then that Virtue is taken so little notice of?

[S’il est ordinaire d’être vivement touché des choses rares, pourquoi le sommes-nous si peu de la vertu?]

Jean de La Bruyère (1645–1696) French essayist, moralist
The Characters [Les Caractères], ch. 2 “Of Personal Merit [Du Mérite Personnel],” § 20 (2.20) (1688) [Browne ed. (1752)]

(Source (French)). Other translations:

If 'tis common to be Toucht with things Rare, how comes it that we are so little toucht with Virtue?
[Bullord ed. (1696)]

If 'tis common to be touch'd with things rare, how comes it we are so little touch'd with Virtue?
[Curll ed. (1713)]

If it be usual to be strongly impressed by things that are scarce, why are we so little impressed by virtue?
[tr. Van Laun (1885)]

If it is usual to be strongly attracted by things that are rare, why has virtue so little attraction for us?
[tr. Stewart (1970)]

Butcher, Jim -- Storm Front (2000)

Dave — Tue, 29 Jul 2014 12:58:10 +0000

Have you ever been approached by a grim-looking man, carrying a naked sword with a blade about ten miles long in his hand, in the middle of the night, beneath the stars on the shores of Lake Michigan? If you have, seek professional help. If you have not, then believe you me, it can scare the bejeezus out of you.

Jim Butcher (b. 1971) American author
Storm Front (2000)

Haldane, J.B.S. -- “On Being the Right Size,” Possible Worlds and Other Papers (1927)

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

I have no doubt that in reality the future will be vastly more surprising than anything I can imagine. Now my own suspicion is that the Universe is not only queerer than we suppose, but queerer than we can suppose.

J.B.S. Haldane (1892–1964) English geneticist [John Burden Sanderson Haldane]
“On Being the Right Size,” Possible Worlds and Other Papers (1927)

Sometimes attributed to Arthur Stanley Eddington.